Computer Science Programming Courses Research Articles

Reproducing Predictive Learning Analytics in CS1

Predictive learning analytics has been widely explored in educational research to improve student retention and academic success in an introductory programming course in computer science (CS1). General-purpose and interpretable dropout predictions still pose a challenge. Our study aims to reproduce and extend the data analysis of a privacy-first student pass–fail prediction approach proposed by Van Petegem and colleagues (2022) in a different CS1 course. Using student submission and self-report data, we investigated the reproducibility of the original approach, the effect of adding self-reports to the model, and the interpretability of the model features. The results showed that the original approach for student dropout prediction could be successfully reproduced in a different course context and that adding self-report data to the prediction model improved accuracy for the first four weeks. We also identified relevant features associated with dropout in the CS1 course, such as timely submission of tasks and iterative problem solving. When analyzing student behaviour, submission data and self-report data were found to complement each other. The results highlight the importance of transparency and generalizability in learning analytics and the need for future research to identify other factors beyond self-reported aptitude measures and student behaviour that can enhance dropout prediction.

Using Machine Learning to Identify At-risk Students in an Introductory Programming Course at a Two-year Public College

In the United States, more than one-third of students enrolling in introductory computer science programming courses (CS101) do not succeed. To improve student success rates, this research team used supervised machine learning to identify students who are “at risk” of not succeeding in CS101 at a two-year public college. The resultant predictive model accurately identifies ≈99% of at-risk students in an out-of-sample test dataset. The programming instructor piloted the use of the model’s predictive factors as early alert triggers to intervene with individualized outreach and support across three course sections of CS101 in fall 2020. The outcome of this pilot study was a 23% increase in student success and a 7.3 percentage point decrease in the DFW rate. More importantly, this study identified academic, early alert triggers for CS101. The first two graded programs are of paramount importance for student success in the course.

Embedding Secure Coding Instruction Into the IDE: Complementing Early and Intermediate CS Courses With ESIDE

Many of the software security vulnerabilities that people face today can be remediated through secure coding practices. A critical step toward the practice of secure coding is ensuring that our computing students are educated on these practices. We argue that secure coding education needs to be included across a computing curriculum. We are examining an approach that complements traditional classroom instruction by turning the student’s integrated development environment into an educational resource for secure coding instruction. In this article, we report on two formative and one summative study using our tool Educational Security in the Integrated Development Environment (ESIDE) in early and intermediate computer science programming courses. Our results support the viability of this approach to increase secure programming knowledge and awareness of students and also to identify several challenges for maximizing the learning opportunities within programming courses.

Increasing Exposure to Programming: A Comparison of Demographic Characteristics of Students Enrolled in Introductory Computer Science Programming Courses vs. a Multidisciplinary Data Analysis Course

Upward trends in programming careers and increases in programming in less traditionally computer-oriented occupations threaten to further increase the current underrepresentation of both females and individuals from racial minority groups in these disciplines. Using administrative data (2009 – 2014), the present study compares demographic characteristics of students enrolled in a course that introduced programming: a multidisciplinary data analysis course, an introductory programming course, or an introductory computer science (CS) gateway course. The multidisciplinary data analysis course enrolled significantly more female students and students with lower Math SAT scores. Females were overrepresented in the data analysis course and underrepresented in the introductory programming and CS gateway courses relative to the larger campus community, with similar findings for underrepresented minority students. Less emphasis on traditional approaches to introductory programming and increased interdisciplinary opportunities to tackle real world questions may be one way to improve access to programming experiences for students from a wider range of educational, social and economic backgrounds.

Tracking students' performance to assess correlations among computer science programming series courses

The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationships among a series of computer programming courses and the impact of a basic programming class upon the subsequent advanced programming courses. It describes a direct measure that kept track of the performance of 195 students over eight semesters within a series of computer science programming courses. Analysis of these correlations shows that, in a series programming courses, student performance in the basic programming class can predict their performance in a data structures course. However, the performance of the students in the advanced level programming course is not substantially predicted by basic programming.

Mechanisms for teaching introductory programming using active learning

One of the requirements of teaching introductory programming to students whose branch of learning is engineering or science is bridging the gap between in-class lectures and real-world applications. Traditional passive approaches to lecturing often focus on the syntax of a language with little or no discussion of the process involved in using the language to design algorithms to solve real-world problems. One way of overcoming the limitations of traditional lecturing is by tailoring lectures towards becoming more student-oriented, a pedagogical methodology known as active learning. This paper explores mechanisms for implementing active learning in introductory programming courses in computer science.

Using a Collaborative Learning Technique as a Pedagogic Intervention for the Effective Teaching and Learning of a Programming Course

Educators are faced with ever increasing challenges when teaching programming. The increase in the number of operating systems brings with it challenges for programmers because of the change in programming paradigms, programming languages and software suites that are dependent on most recent developments in technology and more so operating systems. The issue for educators maybe to move away from teacher centred teaching and learning to student centred learning. Pair programming is a technique that offers educators an opportunity to further enhance student centred learning. This study conducted an empirical study of “pair programming” in the teaching and learning of an introductory programming course in computer science with input from educators and learners. The purpose was to determine how a collaborative learning technique can be used as a pedagogic intervention for effective teaching and learning of a programming course. The study attempted to determine the impact of collaborative pair programming on students and whether Information Technology educators can use pair programming as a teaching strategy. There was a pre-test for students to secure data on how students attempted programming tasks. Thereafter the pair-programming technique was implemented and a post-test was administered to determine the effectiveness of the intervention strategy. The research findings indicated that the educators and learners had a positive attitude towards the use of pair programming to support teaching and learning and learners were convinced that they would become better programmers in the future. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p1077

A Case Study of Adopting Security Guidelines in Undergraduate Software Engineering Education

Security plays a large role in software development; simply without its existence the software would be vulnerable to many different types of attacks. Software security prevents leaks of data, alternation of data, and unauthorized access to data. Building a secure software involves a number of different processes but security awareness and implementation are the most important ones among them. To produce high quality software security engineers need to meet today’s cybersecurity demands, security awareness and implementation must be integrated in undergraduate computer science programming courses. In this paper, we demonstrate the importance of adopting security guidelines in undergraduate software engineering education. Thus, this paper focuses on integrating secure guidelines into existing applications to eliminate common security vulnerabilities. An assessment table, derived from several existing Java security guidelines, is developed to provide in depth critiques of the selected capstone project. Potential security vulnerabilities in the capstone project are identified and presented in a form showing the degree of threats against the three security characteristics: confidentiality, integrity, and availability addressed in the McCumber Cube model. Meanwhile, vulnerability density of the capstone project is calculated to demonstrate the performance of this research.

Does A Pre-Introduction Course Improve Subsequent Performance In Introduction To Computer Programming?

A new Computer Science Introduction course is described. Student grades and the withdraw rate for the next course are both improved, and the proportion of student Computer Science majors is increased.Initial results indicate that the availability of the new Introduction to Computer Science (CSO) reduces the number of students who withdraw from the old Introduction to Computer Science (CS1) almost certainly because students who simply need an introduction to computers no longer sign up for CS1 – a computer science and computer programming course). The limited data for students who took CS1 after completing CS0 do not as yet statistically support the hypothesis that CS0 will improve performance in CS1. A higher proportion of students who completed both CS0 and CS1 declared Computer Science or Information Systems majors, than the proportion of those who just completed CS1.

Utilizing authentic, real-world projects in information technology education

Computer science courses have utilized real-world, customer-driven projects with mixed success for years. There is a large body of anecdotal and empirical evidence to support the idea that students learn via authentic customer interactions in database, software engineering, and other computer science courses. This paper demonstrates that such real-world projects are also applicable to Information Technology classes. By allowing students to apply the theoretical principles learned in prerequisite courses, they are able to solidify and deepen their knowledge of project management, customer relations management, requirements elicitation and management, software development, human-computer interaction (specifically interface design), database technology, communication skills, testing, debugging, and system design. Results from over 50 projects involving over 300 students and spanning seven years of courses are presented and analyzed; these projects range from traditional Windows projects to dynamic, data-driven Webs and cutting-edge projects involving PDA and TabletPC applications. The author was involved in Computer Science Software Engineering and programming courses and then transitioned into the field of Information Technology Education; consequently, the results span the domains of CS and IT education and present a convincing argument that group-based, authentic projects that involve developing solutions for real-world customers benefit Information Technology courses and students. Issues such as appropriate project scope, suggested milestones, reasonable project structure, and how to assign students to teams are discussed. A lightweight process is also provided to assist the reader in applying the recommendations with minimal effort.

Effectiveness of online assessment

For five academic years we have engaged in an on-going study of the effectiveness of online assessment of student programming abilities for introductory programming courses in Computer Science. Our results show that online evaluation can be implemented securely, efficiently, and can result in increased student motivation and programming efficacy; however, unless online components are integrated throughout the course evaluations, student competence will be underestimated. Our data reveals disadvantages of online evaluations, but also shows that both students and faculty benefit when online evaluations are implemented appropriately.

The emporium approach to computer science education

As an alternative to laboratories for computer science programming courses, the Emporium style of learning environment has advantages for a course concerned with the foundations and principles of computer science. Following the lead from courses in freshman mathematics, this paper describes the active learning and assessment methodologies incorporated into a freshman computer science course. The results have been encouraging, and student acceptance of an alternative approach to learning is improving.

Collaboration vs plagiarism in computer science programming courses

In some circles, all programming is collaborative, yet in many CS1 and CS2 courses, individual programming assignments are made, collaboration with other students is cheating, and tailoring a program found on the web is plagiarism. Many educators feel that collaboration belongs only in a very few upper division courses. Others have experience to show that early collaboration broadens the learning of students, to become more effective professional individuals. Most conclude that a blend of the two styles is best for students, and can reduce cheating/plagiarism.Does collaboration belong in programming classes? Where does collaboration end and cheating/plagiarism begin? What are the advantages, problems and techniques of allowing collaboration on programming assignments in CS1 and CS2? The moderator created six discussion questions. Each member of the panel has chosen the position they can strongly support from experience. This panel will discuss these questions in detail among the panelists and audience.

The introductory programming course in computer science

article Free Access Share on The introductory programming course in computer science: ten principles Author: G. Michael Schneider University of Minnesota University of MinnesotaView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM SIGCSE BulletinVolume 10Issue 1February 1978 pp 107–114https://doi.org/10.1145/990654.990598Published:01 February 1978Publication History 38citation1,315DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations38Total Downloads1,315Last 12 Months197Last 6 weeks35 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my Alerts New Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF